Traditional hardwood sport floors are labor intensive permanent installations, which are fixtures of the facilities the hardwood floors are installed in. The on-site installation of the traditional hardwood sport floors involves multiple personnel utilizing field equipment in adverse conditions. Typically, traditional hardwood floors require personnel to install a subfloor, some where the subfloor may be made of pre-engineered units, such as PowerPlay® pre-engineered units, made by Aacer Flooring® of Peshtigo, Wis. Subsequent to installing the subfloor, personnel would then install hardwood flooring. The hardwood flooring is subsequently installed by nailing or stapling individual tongue and groove boards to the previously installed subfloor. After which, personnel finish the installed floor by sanding the floor, sealing the floor (for a first time), buffing the floor, sealing the floor (for a second time), striping the floor (e.g., applying game lines, letters, borders, logos to the floor), and finally, applying two consecutive coats of finish to the floor.
Sanding of the traditional hardwood floors requires personnel to walk behind or drive sanding equipment repeatedly about the installed floor, until the appropriate smoothness is achieved. In some instances, personnel may be sanding in less than adequate conditions, such as poor lighting, poor ventilation, extreme temperatures, and/or extreme humidity, just to name a few. Additionally, the very nature of sanding an installed traditional hardwood floor produces “chatter marks,” which is a result of sanding a floor with a standard split drum sander and the shock absorption design characteristics of the subfloor (i.e., a floor installed on pre-engineered subfloor panels with resilient pads). If an installed hardwood floor has excessive “chatter marks,” then personnel would need to further sand the hardwood surface in an attempt to remove the “chatter marks.” Personnel would be required to minimize the “chatter marks” before applying a sealer to the floor installed hardwood floor. However, once created “chatter marks” are difficult remove. “Chatter marks” are but one of the many challenges associated with installing a traditional hardwood floor. For example, after sanding the traditional hardwood floor, personnel would then attempt to seal the floor for the first time. To do so, personnel would thoroughly clean the sanding debris from the floor to subsequently apply the sealer to the hardwood floor (i.e., repeatedly sweeping and vacuuming the floor). Here, the sealer to be applied may require proper ventilation of the facility in which the traditional hardwood floor is being installed. In some instances, a proper dust free, with minimal air movement, and proper ventilation of the facility is difficult to achieve, which adds to the labor required to complete the traditional hardwood floor installation, as well as adds a significant health hazard. Furthermore, once the traditional floor is installed it becomes a fixture of the building and cannot practically be removed.
Some venues use portable floors, which can be assembled and removed as needed. For example, an arena that hosts both hockey and basketball teams might use a portable floor that can be assembled on top of an ice skating surface. Installation of existing portable floors may not be as labor intensive as the on-site installation of the traditional hardwood floors. However, existing portable floors present other problems, such as poor performance and visible interconnecting seams. Because existing portable floors are designed to be easily installed in a facility, the portable floor panels have regular surfaces or edges. As a result, after the portable floor has been installed the regular surfaces or edges are noticeably visible and not aesthetically appealing. Also, existing portable floors are designed to have fewer interconnections to reduce the labor and associated equipment required to complete the portable floor installation. As a result of designing simple interconnecting portable floor panels to be installed with minimal labor and equipment, the installed traditional portable floor is not as robust as an on-site installation of a traditional hardwood floor and therefore yields a poorly performing floor.
Thus, traditional hardwood floors are labor intensive, and require extensive time and equipment to install on-site. On the other hand, portable floors may be less labor intensive, but are more expensive, perform poorly compared to a traditional floor, and are not as aesthetically pleasing as a traditional floor.